The Twilight movies managed to cover a lot of ground in their short run time, but who were the villains of the franchise before the Volturi came to power? Beginning with Twilight in 2008, the Twilight saga was a series of blockbuster adaptations that brought author Stephanie Meyers’ mega-successful teen paranormal romance novel franchise to the big screen.
An unabashedly sentimental love story, the Twilight series were derided by critics but adored by a large fandom despite the uneven tone of their movie adaptations. But like the creators of the earlier Harry Potter franchise, the Twilight filmmakers had their work cut out for them attempting to bring Meyers’ immersive world to life, and as a result, a lot of material was cut for time in the transition from page to screen. Among these cuts was an explanation of the Twilight franchise’s pre-Volturi villains, the Romanian coven.
By the time the action of the Twilight movies begins, the Rome-based coven Volturi is a fearsome brood of vampires who hold an unquestioned position of power over the world of brooding bloodsuckers. The Volturi's members, Aro, Caius, Marcus, Sulpicia, and Athenodora have held court for been for some time — and, this being the world of vampires, “some time” means hundreds of years. The Volturi are the Twilight franchise's big bad, but before this group came to power the vampire world was run by a coven who lost their grip due to a power struggle. Hailing from Romania, the only two surviving members of this coven, Vladimir and Stefan, are briefly seen in Breaking Dawn, and they're often read as a nod to more traditional vampire lore, but they actually have a pretty well fleshed-out backstory of their own.
The Romanian Coven’s Origins
Hailing from Dracula’s homestead, the Romanian coven are some of the Twilight franchise’s most traditional vampires. Ancient by the time they finally appear (briefly) in Breaking Dawn, both of the coven's only surviving members Stefan and Vladimir having no particular powers or “talents” to speak of, making them much closer to the traditional image of vampires than Twilight’s typically superpower bloodsuckers. Where the Cullen clan has a range of abilities such as seeing the future, the power to read minds, and an ability to control other people's behavior, Stefan and Vladimir are limited to typical vampire attributes such as super strength. In fact, according to their Twilight backstory, it is their very reliance on a physically strong army of vampires with no special abilities that eventually lead to the downfall of the Romanian coven.
The Volturi’s tactical use of their member’s talents makes the physically strong but powerless Romanian coven no match for them, and, although both members survive being ousted, they never regain power from the Volturi who usurp them. Vladimir and Stefan did make a few valiant attempts to win back the seat of power, but the last of these saw the Volturi’s secret weapon Aro unleash the full extent of their fury and cost Vladimir’s mate her life, leading the duo to go into hiding for good… That is, until the events of Breaking Dawn.
Their Role in the Twilight Saga
Ancient by the time Twilight’s action begins, Stefan and Vladimir don’t play any role in the early books of the series and go unmentioned by the main characters until the final novel. This is understandable as, not only are they still in hiding from the vengeful Volturi, but the first Twilight novel and film of the series doesn’t feature the Volturi anyways. The novel and its 2008 movie adaptation is largely a self-contained story with a one-off villain in the form of Cam Gigandet’s James, and although it sets up much of the franchise Twilight doesn’t feature any sign of the series’ big picture villains. However, while the Volturi are a recurring presence throughout the rest of the series from New Moon onwards, the Romanian coven only appears at the tail end of Breaking Dawn, lured out of hiding by the promise of witnessing the Volturi's downfall.
Arriving alongside the likes of Rami Malek’s Benjamin and the many more multinational vampires who back up Edward, Bella, and the Cullens, Vladimir and Stefan end up in the small town of Forks in the hopes of seeing their long-time enemies dethroned. They’re not shy about taking part in the bloodshed either, with Stefan promising to tear the eyes out of his long-time enemies. Unfortunately for them, the Twilight series ends without the Volturi overthrown, sending the Romanian coven back into hiding and further deferring their attempts at revenge.
Why the Romanian Coven Matter
The Romanian coven may be all but absent in the Twilight movies, but why does a detail this seemingly small matter in the grand scheme of things? The Twilight movies needed to lose a lot of backstories to fit the saga’s sprawling story into a few hours of screen time, as evidenced by the decision to cut down the character of Mike (who previously played a pivotal part in the love triangle of the Twilight novels). So why is it important that the Twilight movies are missing the Romanian coven when the characters have so little narrative function in the saga? For a lot of fans, the absence of Vladimir and Stefan cuts out a canny jibe that the novels aimed at critics of Twilight’s non-traditional vampire lore.
Some of the most traditional vampires in the Twilight franchise’s sprawling mythology (with no special abilities and an Eastern European home near Count Dracula’s), the fact that the Romanian coven is out of power by the time the series begins can be read as a riposte to critics who felt Twilight strayed too far from traditional vampire lore. Their irrelevance and previously powerful status can be read as a dismissal of reviewers who felt that the series should stick to established vampire mythology rather than inventing talents, covens, and other embellishments. After all, it was the diverse range of powers that vampires possessed which kept the Twilight series fresh and made for memorable figures like Breaking Dawn's under-utilized, uniquely powerful Benjamin, so readers who wanted to see Vladimir and Stefan epitomize the tired image of outdated old vampires realized on-screen did have a point. That said, Meyers’ saga has little use for the pair outside of commenting on the changing face of vampire mythology, so maybe it was a good idea to cut out the pre-Volturi villains lest the pair of old men become Twilight’s own Waldorf and Statler.